Thousands of fish go belly up as poisoning of Lake Davis starts

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Lee Anne Schramel of the Forest Services shows off the sharp teeth of the northern pike, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2007, at Lake Davis, in Portola, Ca. California Fish and Game start a two day process of depositing 16,000 gallons of poison in Lake Davis, in Portola, Ca. Sept. 25, 2007. The reasoning is to kill off the hundreds of thousand northern pike which has become the killer of all other kinds of fish. (Lacy Atkins /San Francisco Chronicle) MANDATORY CREDITFOR PHOTGRAPHER AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT less

Lee Anne Schramel of the Forest Services shows off the sharp teeth of the northern pike, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2007, at Lake Davis, in Portola, Ca. California Fish and Game start a two day process of depositing ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Matt Carlson of the California Fish and Game brings in a northern pike that he found floating dead in the water from the poison that was deposited, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2007 in Lake Davis, in Portola, Ca. California Fish and Game start a two day process of depositing 16,000 gallons of poison in Lake Davis, in Portola, Ca. Sept. 25, 2007. The reasoning is to kill off the hundreds of thousand northern pike which has become the killer of all other kinds of fish. (Lacy Atkins /San Francisco Chronicle) less

Matt Carlson of the California Fish and Game brings in a northern pike that he found floating dead in the water from the poison that was deposited, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2007 in Lake Davis, in Portola, Ca. ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Lake Davis. Chronicle graphic by Todd Trumbull

Lake Davis. Chronicle graphic by Todd Trumbull

Thousands of fish go belly up as poisoning of Lake Davis starts

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The poison began flowing into scenic Lake Davis early Tuesday morning, and by midday thousands of dead fish were washing ashore or floating belly-up in the northern Sierra reservoir.

By the end of the week, the death toll is expected to include all of the lake's famous rainbow trout, many catfish, shiners and other bait fish along with tens of thousands of the voracious invader known as the northern pike.

The people of the historic high Sierra town of Portola are so desperate to get rid of the pike that they are willing to poison the once and future source of their drinking water and kill virtually every living thing in it to accomplish the task.

On Tuesday, state Department of Fish and Game crews went out in an armada of 25 boats and poured 16,000 gallons of the fish poison rotenone into Lake Davis in an attempt to exterminate the pike once and for all.

"It's all good," said Sara Bensinger, the proprietor of Portola's Grizzly Store and Resort, where about 200 people gathered a couple of weeks ago to cheer as a 13-foot-tall papier-mache effigy of the predator was burned to the ground.

"I cannot wait for the pike to be gone," she said. "The last eight years have been a real struggle for me because of the pike situation."

The community, near the northern headwaters of the Feather River in Plumas County, is a former Gold Rush stagecoach stop and logging and railroad town. The reservoir was built in 1966, creating Lake Davis, which developed a reputation for having the biggest trophy trout in the West, growing up to 25 inches and seven pounds. Fishing and tourism fed the economy of Portola, which now relies almost completely on anglers and campers to spend money there.

In 1994, northern pike were illegally introduced into the lake, most likely by anglers who enjoyed fishing for them in the Midwest and Great Lakes, where they are native, according to Ed Pert, who heads Fish and Game's pike-eradication campaign.

The torpedo-shaped fish soon took over the lake, hiding out in grassy areas and ambushing trout with their razor-sharp teeth. In 1997, a 23-inch pike was caught with a 16-inch trout in its stomach. The trout population has been devastated despite the yearly introduction of tens of thousands of hatchery fish.

The biggest fear among Fish and Game officials is that the pike will escape from the dam and imperil the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The marauders could destroy the already fragile salmon and steelhead populations in California's river system, according to Fish and Game officials.

Salmon runs in Alaska have been destroyed by introduced pike, Pert said.

"They will take over a system and change the ecology," he said.

This is the second time that state Fish and Game crews have used rotenone in an attempt to exterminate the pike. Spurred by a successful program to eliminate pike from nearby Frenchman Reservoir, fish and game officials proposed in 1997 to do the same thing in Lake Davis.

The effort, however, turned into a public relations disaster when residents demanded to know and did not get what they felt were adequate answers about what was being put in their drinking water. Candlelight vigils were held, and 750 people marched to the lake the night before the poisoning began, screaming "baby killer" at state officials.

Portola's mayor pro tem, Bill Powers, and three others were arrested when they chained themselves to a buoy on the lake. Helicopters buzzed overhead, and about 100 law enforcement officers, including sharpshooters, stood guard as the rotenone was put in the lake.

Fish and Game even dug wells so that the 2,227 people in town could bypass Lake Davis and instead drink spring water. But it was all for naught. Within a year, more pike were found in the lake.

Fish and Game officials have since held dozens of meetings with residents, community leaders and businesses and tried everything they could think of to rid the lake of the pike. Some 65,000 pike have been taken out of the lake since 2000, using everything from electroshock and fishing nets to targeted explosions, but the fish have been multiplying faster than they can be killed. Studies on draining the lake showed that, too, was impossible and even more environmentally destructive than the poisoning, officials said.

Numerous studies and environmental reports finally convinced most residents that the only solution was another dose of rotenone, a substance that is deadly to gill fish but is considered relatively harmless to people. Derived from the roots of a tropical plant in the bean family, it has been approved for fishery management by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"I've seen the evidence now that there are no public safety issues and that it is a necessary evil," said Powers, now a Plumas County supervisor, who has taken a 180-degree turn since the buoy-chaining incident. "I wish we didn't have to do it, but we do. In 1997, it all came down to no communication."

The rotenone was released in a white stream Tuesday through hoses trailing behind the boats. Over the past two weeks, 52 miles of tributaries feeding Lake Davis also were treated. The idea is to reintroduce the trout after all the pike have been killed. Officials say that within five weeks, there will be no trace left of the substance.

There are still some in town who are opposed to using chemicals in the lake and killing the fish. State officials have closed off the forests and campgrounds around the lake for fear that eco-saboteurs might try to reintroduce pike, as many suspect could have happened in 1997. Several locals threatened to do just that, and persistent rumors tell of mountain men with fish ponds full of pike.

"Although we've been told the long-term effect of rotenone on other species is negligible, I'm not convinced," said a bearded 60-year-old resident of a cabin near the lake, who did not want to be identified.

Most of the 2,200 residents in town, however, believe they had no choice but to support Fish and Game in their effort to eradicate the pike, regardless of the collateral damage.

"I have to support it, not willingly, but if the pike are going to devastate the fishing industry, then we have to get rid of them," said Bill Spiersch, 75, as he sat on the porch of his home on a hill above the lake. "I sympathize with all the businesses here. It just wipes them out."

Claudia Wronker, who is on the Lake Davis Steering Committee, said a new water-treatment facility is being built, and by next year residents will be drinking lake water again. The lake, she said, is the town's lifeblood.

"We all depend on this water," said Wronker, 67, who has lived on nearby Grizzly Road since 1979. "We have to take our lake back and get people back up here camping and fishing and spending money in town."

Down by the lake Tuesday, more and more fish were bobbing up to the surface as the day went on, including one giant pike that officials said weighed close to 20 pounds. Catfish were swimming around, gulping for air. Mass death loomed as Pert and others crossed their fingers.

"If we don't eradicate the pike this time, it's probably impossible," Pert said. "I don't want to go through this again. I don't think anybody wants to go through this again."

Online resources

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Facts about the voracious northern pike

Appearance: Northern pike have a long body and a head shaped similarly to a duck's bill. They have stout, sharp teeth and are generally green in color with yellowish specks. In Europe, the pike have grown to several hundred pounds; the North American game fish world record is more than 46 pounds.

Range: Northern pike can be found in parts of northwestern Europe, northern Asia and the northern part of North America. They're found in several parts of the United States, including Alaska, New York, New England, the northern Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes, Missouri and Nebraska.

Introduction: Scientists believe the pike was brought to California in 1891 by the federal government but did not become established. In 1988, a pike was caught in a Plumas County lake, which was successfully poisoned three years later. In 1992, the fish were in the Feather River and, in 1994, the pike surfaced in Lake Davis. Those waters were also poisoned, but the fish reappeared in Lake Davis in 1999.

Habitat and spawning: Northern pike prefer water that is full of vegetation and less than 13 feet deep. They can survive brackish water. They spawn in the spring and may migrate from lakes to tributary streams. They occasionally spawn at age 1 year but most reach sexual maturity after 2 to 5 years.

Diet: Juvenile pike feed generally on aquatic insects, but as they grow they eat other fish. Scientists fear they could wipe out some salmon and steelhead runs if they get out of Lake Davis. Adult pike mostly feed on other fish but have been known to eat frogs, crayfish and ducklings.

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